The 1967 Topps cards were my starting point for baseball card collecting, and I had completed series 1 to 6 in 1967. The 7th series was not sold in my area, but I was able to obtain all but 5 (Seaver, Carew, Robinson, Wills, John) of those cards at card shows in the early 1980s.
In my opinion, this is the best looking series issued by Topps. -- 25-SEP-2009

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Johnny Lewis (#91) played four seasons in the mid-1960s, mostly for the Mets. His only season as a regular was in 1965, when he manned the Mets' right field post. After that season, Cleon Jones joined the team and it was goodbye Johnny.

Lewis was signed by the Tigers in 1959, but was traded to the Cardinals in the same year. He played in the Cardinals' farm system until making his major-league debut with St. Louis in April 1964. He split the '64 season between the Cardinals and their AAA team in Jacksonville. After the season, he was traded to the Mets for pitcher Tracy Stallard.

Johnny was the Mets' everyday right fielder in 1965, playing 100 games there and another 40 games in center field. He also socked 15 home runs, but only bat .245.

In 1966 the Mets acquired veteran outfielder Al Luplow from the Indians, who, along with Larry Elliot took most of the playing time in right field. With Ron Swoboda a fixture in left field, and rookie Cleon Jones in center, Lewis was relegated to the bench as a 5th outfielder and pinch-hitter. He also played 71 games down in Jacksonville.

The Mets obtained left fielder Tommy Davis from the Dodgers before the 1967 season, so Lewis was toast. Johnny played most of the season in Jacksonville, and only 13 games with New York, the last coming on June 11th. He wrapped up his professional career with the Phillies' AAA team in San Diego.

Set description I posted in Zistle

The 1967 Topps set included 609 cards, the largest number to date. The cards had vertical backs, the first issued by Topps since the 1953 set. Topps used a color scheme for each team’s cards, but it was different than the scheme they used in ‘the ’66, ’68, and ’69 sets. Cards in the high-numbered 7th series are more difficult to find, due to limited distribution that late in the season.

Among the cards are 19 team cards (no Astros team), 20 manager cards, 43 rookie stars cards (down from 46 the previous year), 13 multi-player cards (from 11 teams), and 12 league leader cards. The World Series cards were also brought back, after not appearing in the 1966 set.

Notable rookie cards in the set are Tom Seaver and Rod Carew, as well as Rick Monday, Reggie Smith, Mark Belanger, and Sal Bando. The rookie cards for veterans Chris Short and Maury Wills also appear in this set, despite each of them having been in the league for many years.

Veteran players who had been in the majors continuously for several seasons (including 1967), but were not in the 1967 set were Lenny Green, Tony Horton, and Jay Ritchie. 1967 rookies with significant playing time who were omitted from the set include Gary Nolan, Don Wilson, Chuck Hartenstein, John Donaldson, Vern Fuller, and Bill Stoneman.

Significant errors in the 1967 set:The first Tigers Rookie Stars card had an incorrect player photo, which was corrected on a later card.The back of the White Sox Team card has the statistics for the Cleveland Indians.

Other quirks in the 1967 set:As mentioned above, there was no team card for the Houston Astros.Nine teams didn’t get a multi-player card, while two teams had two such cards.Standard team colors were not used on the Harmon Killebrew, Twin Terrors, and Sox Sockers cards.The final Orioles Rookie Stars card featured a red frame, while all other rookie cards had a yellow frame.All cards had facsimile autographs except for the Milt Pappas card.Bruce Brubaker had his own “solo” card, despite not having any prior major-league experience.